BedZED Car Club

The BedZED’s car club is the cornerstone of the BedZED Green Transport Plan, which aims to half private fossil fuel mileage associated with the development. Provision of a car club service at BedZED helped give the local authority the confidence to approve a drastic reduction in the number of parking spaces provided. BedZED was the first low car development in the UK to incorporate a car club.

The club was established in partnership with City Car Club (formerly known as Smart Moves). City Car Club provided vehicles, an internet-based booking system and in-car technology whilst BioRegional, with support from the New Opportunities Fund SEED Programme, employed a development officer.

The car club service was introduced to potential BedZED residents at pre-sales open days and at monthly residents welcome evenings as people began to move in. The first booking was made in March 2002. Since then, membership has risen steadily to 36 people, sharing the use of three vehicles. Roughly half of the club’s members work for BedZED-based businesses, and half are BedZED residents. The club is now attracting members from outside the development.

The car club vehicles are parked in reserved spaces at BedZED. Members can book cars whenever they need to – by internet, by ‘phone or via the car’s on-board computer. Cars can be accessed 24 hours a day using a smart card. Once in the car, a pin code activates the on-board computer which then records the journey mileage and duration. At the end of a booking, the journey information is transferred via a GSM mobile ‘phone link to a central server. Charges are on a ‘pay-as-you-go’ basis for each hour and mile that is driven. Members receive an itemised monthly bill for their car travel.

As a result of the car club, nine members have sold cars or deferred car purchases. Therefore, each car club vehicle has displaced four to five private owned vehicles. This mirrors the experience of Europe’s longest established car clubs, where each club vehicle replaces four to six privately owned cars.

For further information on car clubs see: http://www.carplus.org.uk/carclubs/what-are.htm

BioRegional research paper on London Car Clubs (March 2007) can be downloaded from the transport section of our publications page.

Last updated 14th January 2008